This is one of my very special cookie recipes, and I'm excited to share it for the first time. I love baking, and cookies are definitely my favorite — both to eat and create!

These are sort of a take on Red Velvet, only richer, darker, and made with fresh beets — not food coloring! I think we all would love to avoid red food coloring in our food!

Beets are absolutely delicious, and they happen to be incredibly good for you. While these cookies taste more like chocolate than anything, I encourage you to tell your kids they are made with beets, too! Don't sneak healthy foods in when you're cooking — show them off! This is how your kids will learn to appreciate a variety of delicious foods.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup beet puree (about 2 medium beets)

1/4 cup buttermilk

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 (12 ounce) bag white chocolate chips

Preparation:

Makes approximately 5 1/2 dozen cookiesCover a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.Cook the beets in boiling water until tender, approximately 15 minutes. Test a beet by poking it with a fork — if it comes out easily, the beet's done. Peel the beets while they are still warm. Roughly chop them and puree in a blender with the buttermilk, until smooth. Cool completely.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter with the sugars. Add the cooled beet puree, cocoa powder, vanilla, vinegar, salt and egg, and mix to blend. Add the flour and baking soda and mix as little as possible to fully incorporate them. Fold in the white chocolate chips.

Using a 1 1/4-inch ice-cream scoop or a teaspoon, form 1 1/4-inch balls of dough and place them on the parchment-covered baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. (This is a sticky dough, so working with your hands isn't easy.)

When you are ready to bake the cookies, cover another baking sheet with parchment paper and place about 12 dough balls on each sheet — they will spread a bit. Bake at 350 for approximately 10 to 12 minutes. Cool the cookies on a cooling rack for at least 10 minutes before serving.

A quick note:

The fresher the ingredients, the better! However, if you really want to make these and are pressed for time (which of course I wouldn't know anything about), you can use canned beets which are already cooked and ready to puree.

Valentina's passion is food, and she loves spending time in her "kitchen retreat," as she refers to that room in her house. Valentina develops recipes for creative and comforting food that works perfectly for casual entertaining. Both her recipes and food photography have been featured many times on popular food websites and in print. Valentina shares her beautiful photographs as well as new and interesting recipes almost daily on her blog, Cooking on the Weekends.

Outside the worlds of food and photography, Valentina's other passion is her family (including her two young boys, her husband and her puppy, Maple.)

To learn more about Valentina and where her work has been featured, visit her About page at Cooking On The Weekends.